A Very Merry Christmas!

We had a fun and relaxing Christmas up at the cabin this year. It was the first time ever that we've spent Christmas all by ourselves without lots of family around. It was a change but it was also very nice.

Santa was very generous this year and brought Alex and Johnny each a new bike. Alex got the Princess bike she had asked for and Johnny got a hot wheel/big wheel. Christmas morning while Brad was making breakfast Alex decided to write a thank you letter to Santa with the stationary she got in her stocking. Here's what she wrote (she was saying it out loud as she was making squigglies on the paper).
"Dear Santa,
Thank you for Johnny's motorcylce and my new bike and Dad's foot sleds and Mom's new orange"
(Brad got snow shoes and I got the 3 wisemen for my nativity set but all she remembered was the orange that came out of my stocking.)
After present opening time was over, Alex grabbed her 12 Dancing Princesses and Snow White and isolated herself in her room. I went in to snap a picture or two and Alex had me do an entire photo shoot of all of her princesses. We had one with her and all of her dolls, one with her and the 12 dancing princesses, one of her and Snow White and Snow White's dresses. One of her and just Snow White. One of the princesses without her and one of Snow White without her. She wanted to take a picture of each of them seperately too but that's where I drew the line. She sure loves those princesses though.
Johnny's favorite present was his eatable ball that Santa brought him. What a great idea Santa came up with. Johnny puts all of his toys in his mouth anyway so now he has one he can actually taste.
I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did!

Johnny's Giant Candy Cane

The "balloon lady" at Albertson's this morning had a candy cane balloon left over from Christmas and thought Johnny was just too cute and HAD to have it. He was awestruck, he could hardly walk. But walk he did, all over the store carrying this gigantic candy cane around in his clutches. He couldn't just hold it by the string, he had to hold the candy cane itself. Everyone at the store had a fun time pointing out the boy with the candy cane twice his size.

"Maybe no one will notice if I just take one little bite off of the end"

Can you say PILL?

All I wanted to do was get ONE decent picture of the two kids together. Johnny was being such a pill, he pretty much had this look on his face the entire time. This is what inspired the red and white photo in the blog below. I figured I'd give it one more try but Johnny was still frowning for the camera so I opted for separate photos for our Christmas card this year. You can only work with what you've got. Of course as soon as the camera was put away, he was happy go lucky and playing around with us, all smiles. What a stinker!

Inspired by the season...

Our Big Four Year Old!!!

December 2nd Alex turned 4 years old! She is so grown up, just ask her! We measured her in at 42.3 inches tall, you know what that means don't you? She's tall enough to ride more rides at Roaring Springs, yeah! She requested a Princess Geneveve Party from the 12 Dancing Princesses. We had 6 of her friends over for a party in her honor where we decorated crowns, beaded bracelets, "whacked" a pinata (as Alex would put it), had cake and ice cream and opend gifts. She had a huge pile of presents, she got barbies, pets, play food, games, a soccer ball and much more. At the end of the party we played muscial chairs which I wouldn't recommend to a bunch of little girls hyped up on sugar and excitement. It's not fun being "out". While some didn't mind it so much some broke down in tears. We've learned our lesson and everyone walked away with smiling faces and a bag full of goodies. Alex spent the rest of the day closed up in her room playing with all her new toys. Whenever I would go in to check on her or try to play with her she would nicely ask "could you please leave my room now so I can play with my new toys?" Well ok then, she really does think she's so grown up now. Kind of scary but fun to watch.

This is her new favorite pose by the way, I've been seeing it a lot lately...hands on the hips and hips to the side. Not sure where she learned that one.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

You know how that old Christmas carol goes? "You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout, I'm telling you why...Santa Claus is coming to town!" Well aparently Johnny is familiar with this song and is concious about how much crying he's done this year because he was not too excited when Santa "came to town". December 1st was our ward Christmas party and as he does every year, Santa popped in for a visit. Alex was so excited and was one of the first in line to greet him (she has no doubt that he'll be visiting her this Christmas Eve). Maybe next year Johnny can expect more than coal in his stocking from Santa.

Most parents are sensitive to their children's insecurities. I'm like "I KNOW Johnny isn't going to like this, but I want the picture!"